A lot of Hertfordshire “gardens” are not lawns. They are a side return in Watford or Borehamwood, a yard behind a terrace, or a passage that has been storing the bins and a failed rotary dryer. Treating them as a failed version of a big garden — a tiny lawn, a rockery, a shed — usually makes them worse.
Call it a courtyard and the decisions get easier. You need a floor you can walk on in January, a place to sit, something green at eye level, and a way for water to leave.
Floor first
The Humpage project is a side return that was bare soil and a concrete fence. It is now sandstone paving for the length of the house, a low brick planter taking the level change, and a circle of slate with three upright stones. The planting is in the planter and in pots along the wall. The floor stays clear.
Alley paving is the even smaller version: block and slab, nothing else, so a passage reads as a path. Both jobs are hard landscaping first. Soft landscaping is what you add once the levels are honest.
One green gesture, not a border on every side
In a space three metres wide, a bed on both sides leaves a corridor. One planter, or a run of pots you can move when you need the gate, keeps the green without pinching the route. Evergreen structure — a clipped shrub, a climber on the fence — matters more than a tray of summer colour, because the courtyard is looked at from the kitchen all year.
Mrs Marshall’s front garden in Stevenage uses the same idea at a slightly larger scale: a clear path, a pebble edge, a lawn with one circular feature, and pots by the door. You can see the principle from the pavement. Nothing is asking to be weeded on a Tuesday night.
Light, bins and the neighbour’s fence
Courtyards are dark because of fences, extensions and the house itself. Pale paving helps. So does keeping climbers to one wall rather than letting them close the top. If the fence is concrete and grim, a timber screen or a climber is a design decision, not a luxury; it is what you look at.
Plan the bins on day one. A paved bay they actually fit in will look better than a scheme that pretends they do not exist. And if the only access is a side gate, measure it before anyone promises a digger. Some courtyards are built by hand, and that is fine if it was decided early.